Hate Kills

 Here's what The President of the United States said on Monday: "An attack on one group of us is an attack on all of us. In America, hate will not prevail. Venom and violence against any one community cannot – and will not – be the story of our time."

It was not immediately, to me, clear the specific hate to which Joe Biden was referring. I would imagine it was related to the murder of a six year old Palestinian-American boy. This child was stabbed twenty-six times, according to police reports, for being Muslim. His mother was unable to attend Wadea's funeral because she was still hospitalized with a dozen stab wounds of her own. 

The family's landlord, seventy-one year old Joseph M. Czuba was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of a hate crime and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. When first confronted by Czuba over the violence in the Holy Land, Wadea's mother told him, "Let's pray for peace." 

Those prayers went unanswered. Not just in the suburban Chicago home, but back in the Holy Land as well. 

Of course, it is just as likely that President Biden was referring to any of the current litany of cultural, religious, racial and ideological divides that exist in our nominally united states. The red and blue distinctions which have ruled over so much of what we have experienced for the past twenty-five years is only the beginning of a laundry list of reasons to hate one another. Even as we gather as a nation to support those killed in Israel by Hamas, we see how quickly anti-Muslim hate can be stirred on our own shores. 

The broad strokes that get painted by those who seek to spread the fear and hate is in full effect, with presidential candidates among them. Because unfortunately, venom and violence continues to be too much a part of the story of our time. 

An attack on one group of us is an attack on all of us. 

Full stop.